TemplateSyntaxError: Caught ImportError while rendering: No module named myApp

I found some relevant stuff here:

http://forum.webfaction.com/viewtopic.php?id=1875

but it took me a while to figure out that I needed to fully qualify my app's name (as in project.myapp) throughout my project

The forum post above suggested that an overly permissive PYTHONPATH is the culprit. However, on my macosx system, I don't have a PYTHONPATH environment variable. I'd like to know how to recreate the conditions on my home system that better reflect the webfaction environment. Specifically how do I make my app break at home the same way it was breaking on webfaction?